For those who obsessively pay attention to local and national politics to a degree that is probably less than healthy, certain patterns emerge. One of the patterns that is happening nearly every week from the Democrats is the increase in rhetoric, theatrics, and melodrama. Whether it’s Cory Booker breaking the filibuster record over literally no piece of legislation or the increased cursing on social media and in speeches, Democrats, who have no federal power at this time, are doing everything they can to convince the American people that this time, they will wield their power for the good if given another chance. In the latest desperate bid for attention, over 50 Texas Democrats fled the state over a new congressional redistricting map.
This move is as clumsy as it is transparent. Rather than engaging in the legislative process or mounting a court challenge, these Democratic members of the Texas House fled the state, denying the chamber the quorum needed to conduct business. Their destinations? Primarily Illinois, with groups landing in the Chicago suburb of Carol Stream, and smaller contingents heading to Albany, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. These destinations are laughable, given what they are fighting and the sins of those that are granting them sanctuary.
This isn’t the first time Texas Democrats have employed the quorum-breaking strategy; a similar walkout occurred in 2021. In that walkout, Texas Republicans were basically enshrining in law pre-pandemic voting rules. Even though those rules were around for one election cycle, Democrats proclaimed that removing them was, of course, a threat to democracy. History has shown that this is nonsense, as Texas voter turnout exceeded 2016 and 2012 numbers in 2024.
The current standoff underscores a deeper irony: while Democrats decry the Texas map as a threat to democracy, their chosen sanctuaries—Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts—are bastions of Democratic gerrymandering, where similar tactics have been used to entrench power. The move to flee rather than fight in court also deviates from the Democrats’ typical playbook. Recently, they have rushed to judicial arenas to challenge Republican policies, as seen in the barrage of lawsuits against Trump-era executive orders on immigration, environmental regulations, and even what can be shown on government websites. Yet here, with a process explicitly designed for legal scrutiny, they opt for absenteeism, perhaps signaling doubts about the strength of their case.
Independent analyses suggest the Texas maps may indeed hold up under scrutiny. The proposed districts, approved on a party-line vote by a House committee, aim to reflect population shifts and political realities in a state that has grown increasingly diverse. Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, chairman of the committee, defended the map, stating, “This map was politically based, and that’s totally legal, totally allowed, and totally fair.” The Texas proposal appears calibrated to withstand challenges, potentially giving Republicans a net gain without the bizarre district shapes that often signal foul play. Democrats’ refusal to engage the courts is suspicious, especially since this is the normal process for how minority parties engage with these types of moves in a variety of states.
The choice of Illinois as a primary refuge is particularly baffling, given the state’s notorious history of gerrymandering under Democratic control. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project assigned Illinois’ congressional map grades of “F” for partisan fairness and competitiveness, noting it heavily favors Democrats, projecting 14 Democratic seats out of 17 in a state where statewide votes are closer. Districts snake through Chicago suburbs and downstate areas in convoluted shapes designed to pack Republican voters or crack Democratic strongholds. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who signed the maps into law, has defended them as reflective of “voter support.”
Pritzker, who has welcomed the Texas fugitives with open arms, providing logistical support like hotels and meeting spaces, dismissed criticisms of his own state’s maps during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. When host Kristen Welker pressed him on the hypocrisy—pointing to Illinois’ “F” grades for fairness—Pritzker pivoted, calling the comparison a “distraction” and then claiming that Texas Republicans only did this because President Trump wanted them to, as if there aren’t any other reasons for making a change like this.
Equally ironic is the contingent’s flight to New York, a state where Democrats have waged a relentless battle to tilt maps in their favor, often bending or breaking rules along the way. In 2022, New York’s Democratic-controlled legislature passed congressional maps so aggressively gerrymandered that the state’s highest court struck them down as unconstitutional, forcing a special master to draw fairer lines that resulted in Republicans flipping several seats. New York Republicans didn’t flee to red states when that happened; they raised and spent millions of dollars mounting legal challenges, which they eventually won.
Undeterred, Democrats challenged the decision, and in 2023, the New York Court of Appeals ordered the commission to redraw the maps again, allowing for more favorable lines ahead of 2024. The tactic worked, and House Republicans lost three seats in New York between 2022 and 2024. It wasn’t limited to the House of Representatives, either. State senate and assembly maps faced similar judicial rebukes in subsequent years, with courts decrying partisan bias that entrenched Democratic majorities.
But New York Democrats don’t stop at district lines; when electoral setbacks occur, they rewrite the rules. After suffering losses in local elections, they passed a law shifting many local elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered ones, in the hope that the top-of-ticket governor and presidential races will help local Democrats downballot. This change was upheld by a state appeals court in May 2025, yet lawsuits are still ongoing.
In 2021, voters rejected Proposition 1, a ballot measure that would have given the legislature more power over redistricting by weakening the independent commission—yet Democrats proceeded to override the commission’s recommendations anyway, leading to the 2022 court battle. Similarly, Proposition 4, which sought to expand no-excuse absentee voting, failed at the polls, but Democrats have effectively implemented expanded mail voting through executive actions and laws, circumventing the voter mandate. These maneuvers illustrate a pattern: when Democrats lose at the ballot box or in court, they change the game to ensure future wins, all while lecturing others on democratic norms.
Massachusetts also welcomes the wayward Texas Democrats, but while they lecture Republicans about democratic norms, they fail to look inward. Even though 40% of Massachusetts votes Republican, they have zero Republican members of the House—zero for nine seats. Meanwhile, they treat Texas Democrats like they are war heroes and wag their fingers in disgust.
This is all just a simple ploy for Texas Democrats to delay until they can get out of this vote, which won’t happen. Governor Greg Abbott is determined to have this pass, and it will. Then it will go through the normal court challenge, where it will ultimately be decided. If not for their chosen destinations, this story would not garner much scrutiny. The fact that these Democrats are making their stands in some of the most egregious locations points to a level of hypocrisy that cannot be ignored. They should go home and do their jobs, even if they lose.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
